Campus Confidential

By Adam Abramson

I'll start with a new video. I littered them throughout. So scroll down and take a gander.

After 10 hours, it's time to wrap this recruiting marathon up so I can get some work done before North Carolina-Dook.

But, I'll be heading off to sea to recharge for spring football and the draft (although I'm telling my boss I'm recharging for spring training and NBA/NHL playoffs).

Today was no different than any other signing day: lots of surprises, lots of talent from Florida deciding, lots of rumors. It was a fun day that makes it seem Florida, Texas, USC and Tennessee are content with being power houses through at least 2010.

Again, I'm really impressed with the job Butch Davis did in Chapel Hill this winter. He came in with guys like Mike Paulus and Quan Sturdivant on board and added 15 guys in the last 5 weeks including Dwight Jones, Ryan Houston, Marvin Austin, Tydreke Powell and Kevin Bryant. He stole his first recruit from Notre Dame by bringing Greg Little back to the Triangle (Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh for those from abroad). Heck of a job. Top 10-15 class in my opinion. I'm actually convinced Davis used Paulie's Robot from Rocky IV to cater to the recruits on their visits. Who wouldn't want to go attend a college that had a robot that said "I love you, Marvin Austin."

We saw running backs go by the droves to Southern California. I understand that all of these kids have supreme confidence heading into college. Each of them comes from their respective corners of the globe where they were revered by classmates, teachers, barbers, police officers, doctors and everyone else as gridiron gods. But, it's a numbers game. Three freshman running backs just won't work. It's a shame because who knows if any of those guys will ever live up to their potential. Gotta be a featured back for that…

However, I did talk to Scout's Brandon Huffman who focuses on California recruiting and he brought up some good points. If there's any school that can pull [having multiple RBs] off, it's USC. Four years ago, they pulled in LenDale White and Reggie Bush. They really use the guys well together. It's almost a similar siutaiton with Green being the power back and McKnight has the Reggie Bush type.

"Marc Tyler suffered a pretty bad leg injury in the playoffs and could end up a linebacker. He definitely has the body and the size for the position and projects well."

One class I haven't heard anyone talk about was Boise State. Considering the school is in Idaho, it pulled a great class. A four-star QB and a handful of three stars, including two impressive receivers from California (Titus Young and Austin Pettis). Offensive linemen like Josh Nisby, Garrett Pendergast and Cory Yriarte (who blocked for Jimmy Clausen and Marc Tyler) will be vital in the Broncos winning more WAC titles. The exposure from their trip to the BCS really bolstered this class and I think the more chances the smaller schools get, the more of a stake they can claim in college football down the road.

"Of all the non-BCS, Boise State has the best class," Huffman said. "They have quite a few with Pac 10 offers and quite a few with Big 12 offers. They really capitalized on their success this year. They didn't get a huge rush after Fiesta, but went on a pretty impressive run including getting a pair of good receivers from California (Titus and Pettis)."

As far as sleeper classes go, you have to give credit to the job Jim Harbaugh did in about 6 weeks at Stanford. Coming off a 1-11 season, the Cardinal has a class that shows some promise. Huffman pointed out the top kids in the class including Matthew Masifilo, a four-star DT from Hawaii that hopped on board nearly two weeks ago.

"[Stanford] has a hard time recruiting because of the tough academic standards," Huffman said. "A school like USC recruits nationally because of their exposure and being in the living room of players all over the country. Stanford did a good job of expanding the globe with their academics. They made a late run for a guy with hardly any recruiting experience."

Huffman gave all the credit to UCLA with respect to sleeper classes, and he's right. The Bruins only took in 10 guys (the senior class had nine), but Huffman said they have an incredible talent pool to work with and did an excellent job of filling their needs.

Like we looked at last week, recruiting is such a gamble. Not only are you worried about who projects well, you have to worry about where they project. Schools like Tennessee chose to go bananas with skill position guys. I don't know if I'll ever understand why Florida took on four quarterbacks this year, but if USC had a few more blue chips in their class, they would have been No. 1 for smarter recruiting (can't do it though with 18 guys).

I also think it's clear the SEC is going to be college football's power conference for years to come. UF, LSU, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Georgia and the others pulled in impressive classes. The average commit to an SEC school was a 3-star (3.22 according to Scout.com). The conference took a third of the country's top 100 players according to most websites. It's a shame that all of these kids will probably beat the mess out of each other and keep one another from getting to a national title game, like what almost happened this year.

Here's a quick look at the winners of this year (Florida State being the loser):

1. Florida

Keys to the class: Everyone. Seriously.
I don't even know where to begin with this class. Six defensive linemen (five 4/5 stars), three linebackers (all top 15 guys), two corners, three safeties, three wide receivers, three stud offensive guards (I'd assume one will play tackle), three quarterbacks (I think they forgot Tim Tebow will be there at least two more years) and two running backs. Whatever Florida lost this year from the MNC team, they'll get back with this class and last year's class. Like I said about 2 months ago, Florida's not going anywhere. Soon, Major Wright (video below courtesy of the Sun Sentinel), Carlos Dunlap, Torrey Davis and Lorenzo Edwards will be featured on College Gameday or in some Sports Illustrated story.

2. Southern California

Keys to the class: Marc Tyler, Everson Griffen, Kristofer O'Dowd, Chris Galippo What do those four guys have in common? They're all No. 1 in their respective positions. Tyler, one of three running backs any school would gush over, can't be ecstatic that Joe McKnight and Broderick Green hopped on board today. USC has more 5-star prospects than 3- and 4-star guys, combined. It's a small class with only 18 players, but the quality of play Pete Carroll has brought in is pure insanity.

3. Tennessee

Keys to the class: Chris Donald, Kenny O'Neal, Eric Berry, Ben Martin Tennessee now has more skill position players than it knows what to do with. But with a class of 32, eventually the positions start overlapping. Will any of the eight defensive linemen the Vols recruited convert to OL? I think so, because they only recruited one player projected for the OL (after a class that had 4-5 last year). I also counted eight wide receivers and five running backs in this class. Depth is clearly critical for Phillip Fulmer, or he envisions a WR sliding over to tight end or switching to safety? With guys like Gerald Jones, these moves are very feasible.

4. Texas

Keys to the class: Curtis Brown, Tray Allen, John Chiles, Andre Jones The Longhorns have had six verbals since the end of June. Mack Brown and Co. have employed the "fill up the boat fast" strategy in the past and this year was no different. But I like this class because it has a lot of balance. It's a little weak in the linebacker department, but the guys recruited in all of the other positions project well. I think there's maybe four or five guys that aren't at least four-star talent.

5. LSU

Keys to the class: Terrance Toliver, Chad Jones, Joseph Barksdale LSU has a fine class, but they're missing some key parts: Linebackers and running backs. LSU needed Joe McKnight. I think he was the key to keeping the Tigers from having the No. 2 class. But as I said earlier today, Chad Jones could easily play RB (also, Keiland Williams and Charles Scott make the RB situation at LSU just fine). As far as linebackers, the Tigers didn't have any blue chips last year, but they recruited a handful of solid prospects, so if some pan out, they'll be fine. But these will be two positions of focus next year I think.

6. Auburn
7. South Carolina
8. Notre Dame
9. Michigan
10. Oregon

Honorable mentions: Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Miami, Ohio State, Illinois

Okay, enough soapbox. It's two hours until it's time to laugh at the Cameron Crazies. UNC -4.5…we need to make this happen.

I will see you all the third week of February. Get ready for spring practice. Leave me some comments/questions while I'm gone and we can do a spring practice mailbag. Stay warm!